As Above So Below
by MyaBellermine
Summary: Delphine is a rookie detective in the vice department assigned to the biggest vice case of the decade within the first month on the job. Her duty: to infiltrate the West Coast branch of the Ukrainian Mafia to catch the Mafia's most effective, most elusive and most mysterious drug distributor, Nautilus. What could go wrong?
1. A Little Get to Know You

**Author's Note: This is the start to my new story. I am sure it is mistake ridden but I wanted to see if anybody is interested in seeing this story through because if not I don't really have a reason to finish it up. Again sorry for the mistakes. -MyaB**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the idea behind the story.**

As Above So Below

-Unknown Dock Somewhere in San Francisco; November 15th, 4:45 AM-

Delphine sucked in a deep breath as she looked across the calm waves. She closed and wiped at her tired eyes. Being up at four in the morning certainly was not any fun for the French woman. The blonde was used to lounging in bed until her phone continuously beeped her out of it. She ran her fingers through her medium-length, dyed-blonde hair and then crossed her arms. She would be lying if she said she was not nervous. One month on the job and they had thrown her on the undercover case of the century. Bust Nautilus, that was her task, and it was a task she would not take lightly at that.

The VICE department thought they could use a fresh set of eyes from an extra undercover agent on the current wide-scale drug smuggling and marijuana distribution case, so they had thrown on the "genius" rookie. At least that is what they VICE squad had dubbed Delphine. At age 24, Delphine was the youngest detective that the San Francisco police department had in decades. Not only did the young, French woman receive a perfect score on her detective's exam, but she had also been instrumental in the capture of the now notorious San Fran Sniper case the year prior which was the case that prompted Delphine's promotion. She had received special award commendation and was pushed into taking her detective's exam so that she could receive her promotion.

So here she was, waiting on the docks by some of the more sketchier warehouses in the area—a place where the majority of drug distribution happened for the low level dealers—waiting for her contact within the Ukrainian mafia to take her to meet with Nautilus' enforcer/left-hand man (or in this case woman), Sarah Manning. Delphine sighed, she did not know why Art wanted her on this case, Nautilus was elusive and had been elusive ever since he had come in on the drug scene. And, if the best detective on the VICE squad, Detective Childs, could not uncover Nautilus' true identity in the months she had been working undercover on the case, then how was Delphine suppose to? She would rather be working the big meth crackdown case because at least then she would not have to do undercover work. Delphine hated undercover work. It scared the crap out of her.

There was the sound of steps on gravel behind her. The tall woman whipped around. She was met with the sight of a short, pale, crazy-haired blonde woman. "You want to meet with my Sestra?" The woman asked in a thick Ukrainian accent. Delphine simply nodded her response trying to play cold and confident.

The Ukrainian looked her up and down, sizing her up and studying her for quite some time before nodding to herself and waving Delphine over to her. "Follow me".

Delphine could feel her hands start to shake slightly as she followed the pale woman down the docks a ways and into a large, shoddy warehouse. The Ukrainian stopped and the French woman halted behind her. She took in her surroundings, the warehouse was huge, empty, and rundown. Delphine could tell that this warehouse had not been used in at least over a decade or so.

"Oi," a British voice from behind her scared Delphine from her observations. "You the French Rachel sent?"

Delphine mustered up her voice and tried to shake the nerves off, "Yeah Britain, you can call me Paris. Everyone else on the scene already does."

"Names Sarah smartass," The British woman said, "and alright Paris. So you want in? Why should we let YOU in on OUR business?"

"Well for one, a girl like me," Delphine waved her hand up and down her body, "nobody would suspect I was working with the Ukrainian Mafia. And for two, I have a lot of connections back in France. If you are looking to expand your business beyond the United States border, I'd say getting a foothold in at least one European country would be smart, non?"

Sarah snorted, "is that right? You think we don't already have a foothold in a European country? Please. If you haven't noticed I'm British, born and raised in London. I've got my European connection."

"So why not have another? It never hurts to expand business," Delphine persuaded. "My mother is a politician and my father owns a prominent shipping company. My connections are endless and it is an easy in, oui?"

Sarah crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She chuckled and looked the taller blonde up and down. "Alright rich prick. You push two large shipping containers of our product overseas into a port in France. We have a German in France who is looking to become our newest distributor so you make sure that product gets there without ANY problems," Sarah emphasized, "You do that and we will consider letting you in as a part-time and low-level European pusher. Sound fair?"

Delphine nodded, "Oui, more than fair." Again Sarah rolled her eyes but this time instead of talking she threw Delphine a half-smile and walked out of the warehouse. It was just Delphine and the Ukrainian again.

"My name is Helena." The Ukrainian finally spoke up from where she had quietly observed the meeting, "if you double cross my Sestra and my family I will make sure to put bullet through your brain." And with that the pale woman exited the warehouse to follow her "Sestra" back to wherever they were coming from.

Delphine gawked at Helena's backside and shuddered. What the hell did she walk into.

-San Francisco Police Department; November 15th, 7:15 AM—

Delphine twiddled her fingers on top of her desk as Art did his usual daily spiel about what had gone on during the night shifts. It was the typical prostitution busts and low-level drug dealing. She was extremely tired having been up earlier than everybody else in the office and she wanted her daily coffee which she knew she would not be getting till lunch time. The thought made her depressed.

"Delphine," Art called out to her snapping her out of her tired state, "I want you to go find Beth and Angela and make your way back here. Everyone else, dismissed."

Delphine stood up from her desk but leaned against it. She waited until the rest of the VICE squad flooded out of the room before making her way out of their section of the police department and down over to homicides' section. She knew that was where she would find Beth and Angela Deangelis as they had got tied up in a murder case of a prostitute. Since they were the first ones on scene, they were being prepared for court alongside the homicide team. She made her way down the stairwell until she reached the first floor. Walking methodically down the dreary hallway, Delphine stopped in front of the door that read Homicide department.

She knocked lightly on the door before slowly turning the knob and entering into the office. The room turned to look at her and the homicide Captain stopped in the middle of her speech. The tall blonde just pointed at Beth and Angela signaling them to follow her out before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

She began her ascent back up the stairwell when she heard the two women come bounding up behind her.

"Thank you so much rookie," Angela moaned, "I do not know how the homicide department can listen to the boring ramblings of their Captain day in and day out. I'm thankful Art is quick and to the point." Beth just patted Delphine on the back to confirm she was just as grateful as Angela was.

"Well," Delphine drawled out, "don't get too excited _mes amies_ , Art wants a game plan for the Nautilus case so I'm positive that will take up the majority of our day. It will be a drag, _c'est vria_."

"You know rookie," Angela chuckled and jokingly said, "When you talk French to us it turns me so on."

Beth smacked the back of Angela's head, "oh shush Ang, don't pretend like you got the hots for new girl. The whole department knows that you're secretly head over heels for Art anyways."

Angela crossed her arms and grunted. She gave Beth a death glare but quickly shut her mouth. Delphine snickered and shot Beth a quick smile over her shoulder for getting Angela to shut up for once. They reached the fourth floor and headed back over to their department. Delphine slipped back into the main office with Angela and Beth following and took a seat at her desk. Beth pulled up a chair next to Delphine and Angela leaned against the blonde's desk.

Art rolled the whiteboard over towards them. "Ladies, we need a game plan and fast. Delphine managed to score an in but it requires us to somehow ship two containers full of drugs over to our friends in France."

"My mother has connections in InterPol," Delphine spoke quickly, "we can do the hand off to them and let them put a tracker in the containers to see where it ships. Let the distributor take the drugs and sell them to the low-level drug dealers and then let InterPol bust the low-level dealers so as not to tip off the mafia that something went awry. We get an undercover InterPol agent to give the money back to the German distributor to make it look like the drugs sold and everything went off without a hitch."

"That is a solid plan," Beth agreed.

Angela piped in, "but what about the shipping company. Which company do we use and how do we get the drugs past them without them trying to alert federal authorities?"

"Well that's easy," Delphine spoke again, "for one, Art and I have already got permission from the FBI. As long as nothing goes wrong, the FBI is going to keep their noses out of it. As for the shipping company, I did not tell Sarah that my father owned a shipping company for nothing. It is true that he owns quite a few of them on the ports of France. I'll let Interpol inform my father of the plan."

"So who are our contacts within Interpol?" Beth asked.

"A man and a woman," Delphine spoke, "Siobhan Sadler and Paul Dierden. We should be getting a call from them later today."

Art nodded his head, "I think that is a plan I can get behind Delphine but we still need talk about the roles each of you are going to play."

"Well I know my role already," Beth said, "stay where I am within the mafia and see if I can work my way up the ladder. Having two sets of eyes on the inside of this case will be a tremendous help. Even if I only ever see the lower ranks of the Mafia, we need to know these guys inside and out."

Delphine chimed in, "I'm going to stick with my role of working with Sarah. She is pretty important within this branch of the mafia from what we mapped out so far, I believe working with her will be very good."

"That leaves me," Angela looked puzzled. "What role do I play?"

"Angie, you're going to play the role of Delphine's cop stalker," Art chimed in. "I want you to follow her around. Make it look like you're investigating her but do not make it look as if you know her. We want them to think that Delphine is dirty so it doesn't look like she's working with the cops."

Delphine readily agree, "that's smart Art. All eyes have to be on me right now especially if they're still deciding whether or not they want to do business with me. I do not think it would be wise for me to come into work anymore. At least not walking in freely and making it look like I actually work here."

"Right, from now on we will contact you through your work phone. If we need you in the office then we will bring you in by police car so it does not look suspicious. I'll have Raj start building you an online profile. We need you to have a cover story," Art explained. "You need to not be Delphine Cormier kid detective but Jacqueline Laurent, daddy's little rich party girl who is into drugs big time."

"I think I can play that part," Delphine nodded her head.

"Good," Art patted the blonde on the back, "I needed you to stop introducing yourself as Delphine from here on out and go as Jaqueline. This operation can take months and months and we need you to develop a believable backstory and a believable network of friends. Is that clear?"

Delphine sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She never thought she would have to play a character, she was a detective not an actress but yet here she was. " _Oui_ ".

-Undisclosed Location; November 15th, 10:20 AM—

Cosima was not big on any of the hard drugs that the Ukrainian Mafia tended to push but she was very fond of the weed she distributed for them. She took a drag of the joint that rested in between her pointer and index finger and exhaled. She was not very fond of illegal activities actually but she did what she had to do. That was why she was adamant about only moving the Ukrainian marijuana and outright refused to move any of the hardcore drugs they were always trying to get her to sell. Lucky she was good at her job or she was sure the Mafia would have disposed of her long ago. How she, such a tiny little woman, came to be such a prominent figure in the North American branch of the Ukrainian Mafia always alluded her. She had told her bosses countless times she did what she had to do and that was it. They lauded her anyways, held her in high regard for being one of their most effective distributors.

It was her uncanny business sense and level-headedness that got her to where she was. She was never outright malicious to those who wronged her but she was still cold and calculated and nobody messed with the Nautilus, not when the consequences were so high. Cosima did not look the type, what with her tiny frame and pretty face. She wore her hair in a dread-style fashion and flashed toothy grins to every person she passed. The glasses that adorned her face only added to her look of innocence and optimism. That was why nobody ever suspected that she was THE largest weed distributor in North America and a growing force within the European countries. They never suspected that she was the largest earner for the Ukrainian Mafia or that she could, if provoked and backed into making a lesson out of someone, be ruthless and relentless.

It all started about two years ago for her. She had brought home her girlfriend the weekend before Christmas which caused her parents to freak out. For as liberal as her parents always claimed to be, for some reason they could not handle the fact that their little girl liked women and not men. They did not accept Cosima, they kicked her out of the house and threatened to cut her off from the family and financially if she "chose" to continue down the "path she was heading". So standing on the porch of her parent's house locked out, in San Francisco of all places, Cosima decided to make a point; to send a message to her parents. She was gay, that is who she was and that was never going to change, so she and her girlfriend ran off to city hall to have a spur of the moment wedding and got married.

Of course that was the biggest mistake of Cosima's life and the marriage ended in ruins two months later but the fact of the matter was she had essentially told her parents "up yours" and cut them off before they could cut her off. That lead Cosima into financial instability since her parents paid for all her schooling and with the looming threat of being kicked out of college and the ever growing pile of debt she was incurring, Cosima started selling drugs. At first it was mostly innocent and then more and more people started flocking to get their weed from her. Then she got a knock on her door one day and came face to face with a hard looking Ukrainian man who told her to stop selling in their territory.

Cosima being Cosima just kept on selling until the day she was pulled into a big, black SUV and given an offer she couldn't refuse. Either work with the Ukrainian mafia and they would take care of her student debt and of her as well, or die because she was encroaching on their territory and did not back off. Of course she took their offer and never looked back but on the stipulation that they left her to her own devices. She was good at distributing and she did not need them running interference or making her look suspicious by having big Ukrainian men follow her around.

The Mafia had agreed as long as Cosima performed and so the dread-haired girl had formed a ragtag group of drug dealers through careful selection and vetting of people. She had first pulled Alison Hendrix, suburban girl, into it first with promises of riches and a nice life. Alison was a close friend of hers and was innocent as a fly, she fit in perfectly. Since Alison was a business major, she was damn good at marketing and at keeping track of finances, Cosima liked to call her the "Marketing Guru" and "Everybody's Favorite Financial Advisor". She had turned Cosima's little business into a soap shop front which quickly grew in popularity branching out within the United States in a little over a year due to their "After hour" services.

Then came Rachel Duncan, the cold woman with a knack for sweet talking people into working for Cosima. Cosima had met Rachel at a soap convention down in Los Angeles. Rachel was the head of a semi-big corporation known as Dyad which was the leading seller in lotions and was hoping to branch out into soaps. The blonde woman had stopped Cosima and asked her what her secret to success was. Cosima laughed and told her the truth because most people took it as a joke.

" _I sell Marijuana in every soap package," Cosima flashed a smile and chuckled. "It's a real hit with the hipsters and the hippies."_

Rachel then launched into an explanation of how she was bored to tears with her current line of work and wanted a cut of Cosima's business. Cosima agreed and told Rachel that she would get her cut as long as Rachel came to work for Cosima down in San Francisco as her head of recruitment. After the conference, Rachel quit her job, packed her bags, and headed for San Francisco to join the ever growing gang of criminals. She was the one who recruited Sarah and Felix about a month later.

Rachel had found Sarah and Felix one night about to get arrested for prostitution on some shady back alley streets. She had for some reason been drawn to Sarah and felt compelled to intervene. Rachel had offered the officer a large sum of money for the release of both Sarah and Felix. The blonde had found out that Sarah was Felix's pimp and that the two had been living on their own in some danky art studio for years. They both looked strong and in need of a helping hand so Rachel offered them a job as Cosima's enforcers. They being criminals themselves, thought nothing of it and immediately took the position eager to get out of their current lifestyle.

Lastly, Helena came into their lives just a couple months ago. There was an incident with an unruly dealer who had ripped off Cosima's branch of the Mafia, so the Mafia sent her Helena. A Ukrainian hitwoman.

All of them made up Cosima's most trusted group of people, her Lieutenants is what they were. And they were the only group of people to actually know what the mysterious Nautilus looked like because they were the only people Cosima trusted.

Cosima put the joint in her mouth once more and pushed her fingers to her temples. How her branch had grown so large so quick was due to this group of her friends. They weren't her Lieutenants, or at least they were more than her Lieutenants, they were her friends. She took one last drag from her joint before quickly flicking it on the ground and stamping it out. Cosima could hear Sarah approaching.

"Hey Cos," Sarah yelled to her as she made her entrance into their office. "I met with the French chick, she sounds like she is gonna be a good asset."

"What took you so long to get back?" Cosima asked.

Sarah shrugged, "I had breakfast with Cal… and then a little more than breakfast with Cal."

Cosima laughed and shoved Sarah once she got close enough, "ew gross. I totally did not want to know that you got it on with Cal."

The familiar clack of high heels on tiles signaled the approach of the ever lovely Rachel Duncan. "You're still sleeping with that thing of a man?" her frigid voice asked.

"Why do you care Duncan?" Sarah rolled her eyes at the blonde.

Rachel rolled her eyes back, "I don't. I just think he makes you soft which is bad for business."

"Oh yeah," Sarah smirked and approached the blonde. She brought her face closer to Rachel's, "or could it just be that you're jealous that I'm not still bangin' you?"

"I don't get jealous, thank you very much".

Sarah brought her fingertips up to the other British woman's cheek and stroked it lightly. "My little Rachy is a little hurt I see."

"Screw you Manning, I'm not yours anymore," Rachel spat her words at Sarah.

"You already have screwed me Rachel", Sarah grinned and then chuckled. "But I left you because you could never give me an ounce of emotion".

Cosima sighed and stepped in before things could snowball into a bigger mess. "Enough", she spoke calmly but with a lot of authority, "stop it now. I don't need two of my Lieutenants in a damn lover's spat."

Sarah began to object but Cosima cut her off, "Rachel you keep it in your pants and stop trying to piss all over Sarah like she's your territory to mark. And Sarah stop taunting the woman, you only ever make it worse and everyone knows the only reason you're still sleeping with Cal is to make Rachel jealous."

That got both the women to shut their mouth, "where are the others? This meeting was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago. Why are you guys all so late it's like, super unprofessional and rude?"

"Excuse me," Rachel started, "you're the one who is usually late so everyone else figured that had at least thirty minutes before you actually showed up to the meeting Cosima."

Cosima just stuck out her tongue and huffed, "I am the boss. It is okay for me to be late, plus I have classes. Being a grad student in Evo Devo is tough stuff."

This time a more manly British accent broke into the room followed by three sets of footsteps, "yes but we all know Cos that the only reason your ever late is because you're getting it on with some random for one of your classes."

"I object!" Cosima pointed a death glare at the lanky man who had an eyebrow cocked at her.

"Everyone here knows that your history of evolutionary development class ends at 9:30," Felix said crossing her arms at her while Alison stifled a laugh behind the man and Helena just looked on bewildered.

"Cosima…gets it on?" the crazy blonde-haired woman asked in her thick Ukrainian accent which only caused Alison to actually burst out in laughter and Cosima to blush a dark shade of red. Sarah ran to high five Helena and Rachel just rolled her eyes as the situation unfolded.

Cosima pouted, "Everyone just shut up and sit down. You all suck and we have a meeting to get to."

The gang continued to laugh and poke fun at her but ultimately took their seats and listened intently to the words their boss spoke. Cosima did not know how she ever got into this mess but here in this office with _**her**_ gaggle of assholes, she was kind of glad she did.

-Little Coffee Shop on the Pier 39; November 15th 12:00 PM—

Delphine stared at the menu of her favorite little café. She was glad for the reprieve from work and the chance to get some damn caffeine in her veins. She had about an hour to take a breather from the case and for that she was grateful. The café was completely filled so the blonde French woman had been waiting quite some time for her order to be taken. However, she did not mind due to the fact that she got to people watch from her seat near the front door of the café. It pleased her to try guess their stories and lives based on little details and their appearance. It was one of her favorite past times.

There was a man who sat two tables down from her booth. Most people would assume he was a lonely man who was very business oriented by the suit he was wearing. Which was not completely wrong. On his left hand a wedding band lay on his fourth finger signifying that the man was married. He had a small stain that looked a lot like baby food from where Delphine sat on the color of his ruffled white button-up, which means the man had to have at least one baby but by the way his shirt was ruffled down low she could also assume he at least had one toddle as well. The man had bags underneath his eyes which only supported Delphine's baby theory and his hair was ruffled rather than well-kept which meant, most likely, that this man had a busy morning and not a whole lot of time to get ready. His blazer was left unbuttoned and his white-collared shirt was not tucked in, which either meant that this man was a bit of a slob or that the man had a more laid back personality and was not uptight.

The Auburn hair man typed at his laptop extremely fast however which told Delphine that this man was also very work-oriented and serious about what he did. Even on his breaks which ruled out the man being lazy leaving her laid back and relaxed personality theory to be true. His eyes were glued to the screen and on the table behind the laptop sat a book, _The Legal Environment of Business_. The man was most likely a corporate lawyer.

"Can you just let me in? I'm starving man!" a raised groan caught Delphine's attention and her ears perked up as her gaze settled on the front desk of the café near the front door. It was a small brunette woman with her dreads in a bun. She had a nose ring in her right nostril and black glasses adorned her face. She was very cute Delphine thought. She looked like a very easy-going person by the way she dressed. A simple deep red shirt with a black scarf that had rhinestone skulls on it.

"Please dude," her melodic vice spoke up again, "you can find at least one seat in this joint".

"I'm sorry ma'am but the place is beyond packed," the worker apologized.

Delphine did not know what compelled her but she let her voice pipe up as she chimed into their conversation, "the lady can sit with me". The worker gave her a look but the French woman just smiled politely. She shorter woman looked over to her and gave her the biggest, toothiest and cutest smile Delphine had ever witnessed, it was a fangy-toothed smile and it was charming.

"See dude," the woman laughed and patted the guy on the shoulder, "this pretty lady gots me".

The worker gave Delphine a half-smile and conceded. Delphine looked at the smaller woman and waved her over. The brunette did not hesitate and made her way towards Delphine's booth, promptly sitting across from the blonde. The woman reached her hand out to Delphine.

"The name is Cosima," the smaller one said shooting the French a broad grin. "Thanks for saving my ass."

Delphine took her hand in her own. Carefully, keeping Art's words in her head, she replied, "The name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Laurent. Enchanté.''

Cosima shot the French woman her winning smile and replied back, "enchanté".

 **...**

 **If you liked it and want more please leave me some feedback! Also I am always open to constructive criticism, if you have some complaints please do it in a way that can help me improve my writing. Thanks for reading guys/girls!**


	2. Unknowingly Falling

**Chapter 2 is here. These chapters will probably come around every two weeks. Let me know what you guys think, I feel like it all may start to get a little confusing so let me know if I need to clear things up or change the format or whatnot. Let me know if you guys want to see anything specific because I am willing to take outside ideas into consideration. Just let me knowww.**

 **Again all the mistakes are mine and there are probably lots! I Own nothingggg. Enjoy Guys! -MyaB**

Chapter 2: Unknowingly Falling

Previously:

" _The name is Cosima," the smaller one said shooting the French a broad grin. "Thanks for saving my ass."_

 _Delphine took her hand in her own. Carefully, keeping Art's words in her head, she replied, "The name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Laurent._ _Enchanté.''_

 _Cosima shot the French woman her winning smile and replied back, "_ _enchanté_ _"._

-Little Coffee Shop on the Pier 39; November 15th 12:05 PM—

Delphine chuckled at the American woman's butchering of her native language, it made Delphine cringe, yet it was still somehow remarkably cute.

"What?" Cosima laughed, "did I like, say it incorrectly or something?"

Delphine gave Cosima a reassuring smile, "it was a fair pronunciation from a non-French speaker."

"Good, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself in front of the French cutie right off the bat," Cosima winked at the blonde that was sat across from her.

Delphine smiled at the compliment but then her face contorted into confusion, "…off the bat?"

"Oh god," Cosima apologized quickly, "it's an American expression. It means something along of the lines of like right away or right from the start."

"I see," Delphine muttered softly, "I suppose that makes sense. Thank you for explaining it to me Cosima."

The shorter woman bit her lip, "oh anytime. Seriously, anytime." Cosima was really into Delphine (to Cosima, Jacqueline) and she would not mind explaining every American expression for the lovely French woman. "So Jacqueline, I take it you haven't been in the states long if you haven't caught on to a bunch of our silly American expressions. How long have you lived here?" Cosima asked.

The name Jacqueline was foreign to Delphine and a part of her almost did not answer the question as her brain did not register that Cosima was asking her. Cosima stared at the blonde expectantly waiting for an answer until it hit Delphine that Jacqueline was now her. "Oh! Umm," Delphine tried to think of an answer quick and she figured the best answer was the truth, "I have actually been in the states for quite some years. I transferred over to an American University my senior year and have been here since."

"What did you study?" Cosima asked wanting to know everything about the woman sitting across from her.

Again Delphine went with a partly truthful answer. "I studied business and marketing (she studied criminology). I was to inherit my father's shipping company back in France (also a lie although her father did own a shipping company, she never wanted anything to do with it)."

"That's awesome!" Cosima was intrigued, "so why didn't you inherit the throne?"

"I decided that I did not want to be CEO of a company at such a young age and made the decision to manage one of the branches of my dad's company instead." More lies, being someone else was a challenge. She would have to keep this story straight for future reference. Delphine needed to change the subject before she had to come up with more lies on the spot. "Do you attend University Cosima?"

The dread-haired woman nodded enthusiastically. She was eager to share information about herself with this woman. Cosima wanted to impress her, "I am doing a master's program to obtain my PhD in Evo Devo." Seeing the puzzled look cross Delphine's face when she said "evo devo" caused Cosima to explain. "Uh, that's evolutionary development. I'm very interested in the evolutionary development processes of human beings and theorizing about where it is headed in the future. I've also taken an interest in self-directed evolutionary development and the widespread implications that self-directed evolutionary development could have on the future."

Delphine was now intrigued. Evolutionary development was a topic that had always interested her throughout her years in college as well as immunology. "What sort of implications do you think self-directed evolution could have for the future?"

Cosima grinned, happy to be engaged by someone on the topic she loved that was not Scott. "I mean there is so many implications that it could have it is impossible to narrow down and talk about one that will for surely happen. However, one of my own personal theories revolves around the implications and impacts that self-directed evolution could have on the structure and hierarchy of society. I borrowed generously from GATTACA and decided that genetically modified humans could become the new normal in future generations which would theoretically cause a divide between the public, those genetically modified and those who remained untouched by genetic modifications." Delphine was enamored by the smaller woman now.

It was cute, this woman was cute. Cosima talked a mile a minute and waved her hands around the more excited she got when explaining the topic. It made Delphine smile stupidly.

It is human nature to try to put yourself above someone else and we see it a lot in current society-even though at this point we are starting to see a decline in these attitudes—but where either being of a specific race, gender, or sexuality puts you above someone else just because. My guess is that in the future those attitudes will dissipate almost completely but that with the discovery of genetic modifications a new type of minority will arise, the not genetically modified, which would cause a shift in the structure of our society as we know it." Cosima finally finished her spiel on her own theory with a big huff of air at the end.

"That is a very interesting theory _mon amie_ , one that I would love to hear discussed in further detail at a later date," Delphine smiled at the other woman and rested her hand upon Cosima's.

"Well Jacqueline," Cosima joked, "are you asking me out on a second date?"

Delphine simply nodded, " _oui_ , I would love to have coffee again and get to know my new friend more. You are very interesting Cosima, very intriguing."

Cosima blushed at the compliment from the blonde woman, she was flattered that this beautiful lady thought that she was intriguing. "Well, I would like that very much. We should exchange numbers and then we can set up a date sometime later."

Delphine whipped out her phone and handed it over to Cosima so that the shorter woman could enter her number into her phone. Cosima just slid her phone across the table to Delphine who picked it up and promptly entered her number into her new friend's phone. The French woman then slid it back over to Cosima who handed Delphine's phone back to her as well.

Delphine looked down at the screen of her phone to see that Cosima had inputted herself as, "the Café Cutie" with a winky emoji next to the nickname. This caused the taller woman to laugh out loud . "You're a funny one Cosima."

Cosima shrugged and smiled, she loved the other woman's laugh and she wanted to hear more of it. However, Cosima had class very soon so she had to dismiss herself if she wanted to get to class on time. "Well, I have to jet Jacqueline, I have class right now. It was super awesome to meet you and I'll definitely text you sometime."

Delphine stood up and through some money on the table for their bill, she wanted to escort this woman out. "I'll walk you outside."

Cosima thanked Delphine for paying for her as well and started to walk out of the Café with the blonde right behind her. Once out in front of the café, Cosima turned to look at Delphine. Delphine pulled the smaller woman into a brief embrace before letting her go and kissing Cosima on both sides of her cheeks.

" _Au Revior mon amie_ ," Delphine smiled down at Cosima.

Cosima blushed profusely before she shot the blonde a winning smile, "catch you on the other side." She stuck out her tongue to Delphine before waving goodbye and turning on her heel, she really had to get to class.

Delphine just watched Cosima retreat, shaking her head at the brunette's backside. That girl was something else.

-Cormier and Co. Shipping Yard; November 19th, 11:49 PM—

"Alright Delphine, this is your moment," Art told the blonde woman and patter her on the back. He handed her a small object about the size of a paper clip. "That is the tracking device. Slip it in with the shipping container and the rest will be up to the International Police in the water. If you need us, you are wearing a wire, yell the safe word and we will come running. Good Luck kid." With a reassuring smile and another small pat on the back, Art retreated to allow Delphine to wait for Sarah in solitude.

Delphine was a little worried at the number of things that could go wrong in this situation. They could decide to pat her down very well and discover the wire she was wearing. They could decide they did not trust her and instead have her assassinated and her body disposed of. They could kidnap her if they somehow discovered her true identity. Most of these scenarios were a long shot but they were all possibilities and that is what scared the young detective the greatest. The fact that in this situation she did not have control, Art and the other police officers would probably not get to her in time if Sarah decided to kill her where she stood.

Delphine leaned her body against one of the shipping crates and looked across the horizon. The sight of the multi-colored sunset calmed her nerves down some. The sky was lit up in a brilliant purplish-orange red with hues of yellow. The waves crashed calmly against the docked boats. The scenery was altogether this rare peaceful. One she had not experienced since her meeting with Cosima four days ago. That spitfire of a woman had brought a peace to her heart that she did not even realize at the time. Talking to the dorky woman was easy, like they had known each other a lifetime, it had put her regular stress nerves at ease for that moment. She did not know how or why the other woman had that effect on her, but Delphine knew she wanted to experience it more.

The detective was tempted to pull her phone from her pocket and text the younger woman but refrained. She wanted Cosima to message her first, which felt juvenile, but she wanted to make sure Cosima actually wanted to hang around her more. She wanted the pretty brunette to be the one that initiated the conversation and the one that asked her out to half more coffee or see a movie or something. It was silly but that woman made her feel silly (in a good way) and she could not pinpoint why.

The blaring of her phone's ringtone shocked her out of her thoughts. She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked down at her phone's screen. _Café Cutie_ lit up the phone. _How conveniently right on time_ Delphine thought as she swiped left to open the message.

 _ **Hey! Sorry that I am just shooting you a text now…I've kinda had a busy week. Please forgive me :P -Cos**_

Delphine chuckled once she saw what was written out, Cosima texted like she was a high schooler which Delphine found amusing rather than annoying. Delphine quickly typed back:

 _You are forgiven, I promise. I understand Cosima and as you put it so nicely: :P._

As quickly as she sent it she received a message back.

 _ **Oh god, you text like my grandma lol but anywayssssss would you like to get coffee sometime this coming week? My treat since you saved me last time at the Café. –Cos**_

Delphine rolled her eyes at her phone, this girl was a cheeky one and Delphine strangely liked it.

 _I'm sure your grandma is a very good texter so I am going to take that as a compliment. Also, yes I would love to accompany you to coffee this coming week silly girl. –Del_

"Let's make this quick," an unfamiliar and preppy voice approached her. Delphine turned her gaze from her phone to meet the gaze of a woman that looked similar to Sarah but held herself in a much more presentable manner. The woman wore a pink zip up sweater, black gloves, and a pink headband that held her hair back. She looked like the definition of a soccer mom which took Delphine by complete surprise.

"Sarah sent you?" Delphine asked slowly. She thought this woman had the wrong person.

"Sarah is not my boss, I am Sarah's boss," the woman defended quickly. "She sends me nowhere. I answer to Nautilus and Nautilus alone."

Delphine remedied quickly, not wanting to get on this woman's bad side, "my mistake. Everyone calls me Paris," the blonde stuck her hand out to the smaller woman.

"You can call me Alison," the woman said and grabbed Delphine's hand in her own gloved hand. Delphine figured that this woman must have been very sensitive to the cold as it was only about sixty degrees out and the woman still felt the need to wrap her hands. "Now please let's make this quick. I hate doing Nautilus's dirty dealings on the street as it is. This is Sarah's job but since Sarah can't be here I am," Alison grumbled looking rather upset about that fact.

"Where is Sarah?" Delphine asked curious, she would take any information that she could get. No matter how big or small.

Alison sighed, "Sarah is none of your concern. Now let's get to it. You need to help me load the shipping containers with the packages in an inconspicuous way. Most of the packages are already done, we just need to stuff a few boxes still. Then we just need to load the containers with the boxes. We will be shipping the product with packages of soap. Stack the boxes of soap in a box shape while leaving the middle open. That is where we will stuff the packages. Then lay boxes of soap over that, close the box and put it in the shipping container. Rinse and repeat. Everything is in the bed of the truck, let's go. I want to make it home in time to at least get a decent amount of sleep."

Delphine nodded and followed Alison's lead. Grabbing the boxes of soap she did exactly as instructed as Alison started to load the shipping container with big boxes filled with soap and drugs. It was funny to Delphine, she thought that shipping drugs would be a lot more glamorous and exciting, but she could not have been more wrong about it. She lined the edges of the cardboard box with small packages of soap, filling it to the brim and then continuing to fill out the rest of the cardboard box except for the middle. In the middle she would take a medium sized bag of Marijuana and stuff it in the hole and then covered the top of the hole with a box of soap. Tedious work really but it did give her an opportunity to slip in the tracking device. When Alison was not paying attention, Delphine took the small device from her pocket and slipped it into the bottom of one of the boxes.

Then she continued to pack boxes. Box after box, pack the product and then close the box, tedious work. She had to admit that their method of transportation was genius. The soap smell masked the smell of drugs so even if there were container checks, there's would not be suspected. That and it just looked like every package was a bunch of soap. When she was finished packing the boxes of soap, she saddled on over to Alison and begun to help her pack the cardboard boxes into the shipping container. Alison did things very neatly which seemed counterintuitive to what Delphine thought a drug dealer who ran with the mafia was like. Delphine supposed it was because of the people like Alison within the Mafia that the criminal organization had not been caught yet.

When the last box was packed, the two of them closed both shipping containers.

"That should be it for the night," Alison said. "Thanks for the help. You're a good worker Delphine and I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship. Maybe I'll put in a good word for you with Nautilus. You will be a valuable asset."

"Thank you, I appreciate that Alison," Delphine smiled at the woman. "I think we will get along very well, _oui_."

"Good," Alison gave a small smile back, "but that doesn't mean I trust you and that doesn't mean anybody else trusts you either. You're going to be a good asset but that is all you are. You're not a friend and you are not an ally. Right now you're nothing more than a good connection. Prove yourself and that may change." Another nod from Delphine to signify that she understood. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to get home so that I can kill Sarah for making me do the dirty work and then sleep."

"Goodnight Alison."

"Goodnight Paris."

And with that Alison jumped into her truck and took off from the ship yard, leaving Delphine to walk back to her car. She pulled her phone from her jean pocket and dialed Art's number. She let Art know that everyone that was monitoring her could go home and that she would call him tomorrow to discuss getting a sketch of Alison to put up on their board. They needed to figure out exactly what her role was within Nautilus's branch of the Mafia. They also needed to refine their search for Mafia members as Alison really shook up their idea of what a Mafia member could look like. For now however, Delphine just wanted to fall into bed, she was very tired from the work. She hung up the phone and went to look at her messages to see if anyone had text her.

She had a couple of messages from Beth and Angela asking her how phase one of the operation had went. She had a couple of messages from her friend Danielle breaking down the gossip and drama that was going down back home in France and she had one message from her mom that was just a picture of the family dog being a goofball. However, the only messaged that caught her eye was the single message from Cosima that was an answer to Delphine's earlier text to her.

 _ **Silly girl, I like that ;P-Cos**_

And for some reason that winky face made all the difference. It sent butterflies shooting up Delphine's stomach and brought a stupid smile to her face.

 _ **Earlier:**_

-Alison/Sarah/Rachel/Everyone's Shared House; November 19th, _10:33 PM_ —

"Sarah!" Alison yelled from the bottom of the steps. "Get your butt up, you have to go meet that French lady in about less than an hour." Alison had been at the office half the night and had been calling and texting Sarah as a reminder that she had to go take care of the dirty work but had gotten no response from the other woman. Finally about twenty minutes ago she had got fed up and just drove home to go whack Sarah out of bed and to the meeting.

"Sarah! Seriously!? Can you answer!" Alison yelled out even more frustrated this time. Alison was not one to cuss but she was about ready to. She bounded up the steps of their home and made her way to Sarah's room. She heard chuckling and various other muffled sounds from inside so she knew that the troublemaker was inside of her room.

Already fed up with the girl she did not bother to knock and instead opted to just crash through the door and pull Sarah by the hair out of bed and to the meeting. "Sarah get the fudge out of be—" Alison yelled out at the sight in front of her. Sarah and Rachel laid naked on Sarah's bed. Rachel was between Sarah's legs and Sarah was moaning.

Sarah screamed and through the blanket over her body and Rachel's before tossing her pillow very hard in Alison's direction. "BLOODY KNOCK NEXT TIME!" Sarah yelled at the preppy woman.

"OH MY GOD! My eyes are burning!" Alison turned to look at the wall dramatically.

"That's your own fault!" Sarah yelled again. "You could damn knock next time!"

"You need to go to the meeting and you weren't answering my calls!" Alison retorted.

Sarah snapped back, "for good reason! Yeah?"

"I can't believe you're sleeping with Rachel again," Alison commented quietly.

Rachel's tamer British accent piped in, "I am in the room you know."

"Sorry Rachel," Alison grumbled, "I'm just shocked is all. And Sarah needs to go to her meeting!"

"No," Sarah protested, "Since you ruined my orgasm you go."

Alison objected, "No way! This is your meeting."

"You better go or I will tell Donnie you slept with that one low-level grunt, Beth was her name yeah?" Sarah threatened. "And hey the poor girl didn't even know you were her boss. That would be interesting if she found out you were actually Nautilus's right hand."

"You wouldn't dare!" Alison whipped around to look Sarah in the eyes. "If she knew I was the right hand to Nautilus she would use me just like Donnie uses me."

"Oh I would dare," Sarah threatened again, "if you don't go to that meeting."

"You are an asshole Manning!" Alison pouted.

"You ruined my orgasm!" Sarah countered. That made Alison huff and cross her arms. Giving Sarah the death glare she swore that she would get the bastard back. Shooting Sarah one last glare, she turned on her heel and exited the room. She better go get ready for the meeting.


	3. Give me a Little More

**Author's Note: Sorry it's been awhile. I usually write at work and since I was not working for a bit there my writing tapered off. I'm back at work finally so more chapters. Yay! Thanks for all the kind words I have gotten so far everyone! Truly it is an honor that anybody is even reading this.**

 **This chapter is short and mainly just some good fluff. I do not expect this story to go on very long, you'll notice kinda of noticeable time leaps and such. The Fic is probably looking at 8-12 chapters depending, maybe longer, we will see how it goes.**

 **Anyways enjoy! -MyaB**

 ***Also super forgive me if I'm mixing up names left and right. It is hard to keep track especially for Delphine because of her "undercover name" so work with me and point it out if you would kindly, so I can go back and fix it.**

Chapter 3: Give Me a Little More

 _ **Recap: Delphine helped Alison pack the shipping containers. Rachel and Sarah are sleeping together again.**_

-Alleyway outside the Tea House; November 25th, 8:31 AM—

"You do realize that your being undercover really fucks things up for me," the voice on the other end of the phone sounded into Delphine's ear. "Since Beth is also undercover that literally leaves me one of the few competent detectives in this department to pick up your guy's slack."

Delphine snorted and asked, "Angela, has anyone ever told you that you complain to much?"

Delphine could almost hear the eye roll through the phone, "har har Cormier, you know how many times I've heard that one? But seriously, I would never admit it but I kinda miss you guys."

"We miss you too Angie," Delphine smiled. "But okay I called to tell you to tell Art that Alison has finally contacted me once more and she wants a meeting. Sarah, Rachel, and her. I think this could be a pretty important meeting. It seems everything went well on Paul and Siobhan's side of things."

"Yeah or they could've made you and are now gonna murder you, either or works," Angela said nonchalantly.

"Oh now who is the jokester, you, _non_?" Delphine frowned. But actually what Angela had brought up was a real concern of hers. She could be made at any time and it did not matter if she took every step possible to avoid it. Undercover work was extremely unpredictable and was why she really disliked working undercover.

Angela's voice softened, "hey, come on Frenchie, you know that none of us here in the department would let that happen."

" _Merci_ , that was surprisingly comforting."

"I mean, the guys would be sad to see the hottest woman be gone from the department and well Beth and I would be sad because we can't just shove all of our unwanted cases onto the rookie," Angie stated reverting back to hard, uncaring attitude.

"For a second I thought you were a half decent person Angela," Delphine chuckled. "But okay, I must go now my friend, I have a uh work meeting." Delphine rolled her eyes as soon as the lie came out of her mouth.

"Oh really? 'work meeting', solid lie dumbass. Cormier I really do not know how you're doing so well undercover. It truly shocks me. Everybody knows you're dating some hippy dippy dread haired girl."

"What how?" Delphine asked Angela.

"Dude come on, you really think we do not keep tabs on you?" Angela asked. "We have had too many undercover cops go rouge so now it is like completely normal for the department to keep tabs on their undercover agents."

"That is kind of shitty," Delphine murmured into the phone. "But besides, she is not a 'hippy dippy' as you so put it. She's very sweet and intelligent and I want to see more of her."

Angela scoffed, "okay heart eyes, go enjoy your date. I'll let Art know, have a good day _mon amie_." Angela said in an attempt to mock Delphine.

Delphine rolled her eyes and hung up her phone. Angela could be a handful sometimes but she nonetheless had a soft spot for the smartass. The blonde cracked her neck before slipping her phone back into her pocket and walking back towards the entrance of the Tea House. Cosima was currently waiting for her as Delphine had to leave her to answer Angela's call.

Entering the Tea House she looked around the dimly lit building which housed a very modern décor. Everything was black and gray which was offset by a light green that was splashed her and there. The tables were nice and square and low to the ground with bean bags as the primary source of chairs. It was all a very free-spirited vibe place and Delphine actually did not mind in the least. It was charming and Cosima liked it so Delphine also found herself liking it.

Delphine found the table that she had been seated at earlier and took her seat across from Cosima again, getting situated criss-cross applesauce in the beanbag chair. "Sorry about that it was one of my stupid best friends, she was having boy trouble," the lie just floated out of her mouth. It was becoming increasingly more frequent and that was concerning for Delphine.

"Oh no worries," Cosima flashed her fangy grin, "I get it. And truly, it is admirable that you care enough about your friends to put down your personal life for them."

That grin Delphine could fall in love with. It was incredibly cute and Delphine found that the brunette sitting across from her could turn her whole day around just by flashing her that smile. Their hang outs and been becoming more and more frequent and Delphine wanted to ask the smaller woman on a date. Today, the blonde had planned to ask Cosima today. "Has anybody told you that your smile is irresistibly adorable?"

Cosima blushed, "and has anybody ever told you that you're super cheesy?"

"Cheesy?" Delphine gave a light laugh and flashed a knowing smile to Cosima, " _oui_ , they have told me I'm very gouda at complimenting others."

"Oh and there is the pun," Cosima giggled, "so predictable Miss Laurent. Also, so very insufferably cute. I can't believe I'm dating someone who thinks puns are an acceptable form of humor" The tiny woman stuck her tongue out at the blonde and then froze.

Delphine bit her lip, "dating, huh?"

Cosima started to back track, "well I mean yeah we go on dates. Like friend dates, we do date as friends. Totally friendly non-romantic dating dates…"

The blonde reached across the table and pulled Cosima's face close to hers like she was going to whisper a secret to the tinier woman. Then, slowly, she leaned into kiss the other woman very softly. When their lips touched Delphine knew this woman would be the end of her. Everything clicked, it felt just right. Like she was home. So she pressed her lips against the Brunette's harder, not caring that the edge of the table was digging harder and harder into the lower part of her belly.

Cosima responded in kind once she got over the shock of feeling the blonde's lips pressed against hers so suddenly. It was a kiss that struck a chord in Cosima that had never been struck before. A kiss that said that this was going to be way more than just a kiss, then just another woman that she dated for a couple months before breaking things off. She let her tongue dart out from between her lips and traced the French woman's top lip. This was total heaven.

Delphine pulled away at the feeling of Cosima's tongue. It brought her back to reality and she was not sure if what she did would be seen as okay with Cosima. I mean she assumed it would since Cosima had just traced her top lip with her tongue but she still was not completely sure. Plus, the table was really hurting her lower stomach.

"Was that okay," Delphine whispered. Her face was still really close to the other womans'. It was completely distracting for her.

"More than," Cosima smiled softly.

"I just did not want you to backtrack on what you said," Delphine responded, "I like you a lot Cosima. I have been meaning to ask you on a date you know? I just was not brave enough but I was going to suck it up today and do it."

"Really?" Cosima grinned at the blonde this time.

"Yes, you are amazing Cosima. So intelligent and so beautiful and so intriguing. I feel right at home with you, _c'est vrai_."

"I think it is incredibly sexy when you speak French," Cosima whispered and then bit her lip.

" _Ouais? Je vais parler en français tout ce que vous voulez . Si cela signifie que vous irez sur un vrai rendez-vous avec moi"_

"What did you say" Cosima asked the blonde across from her.

"I said that I would speak French all that you wanted if that meant you would go on a true date with me?" Delphine asked again with a sheepish smile.

"Of course," Cosima beamed at the woman of course from her and lurched forward to meet her lips with Delphine's once more. "A million times of course! Jacqueline I would love to go on an actual date with you."

Delphine's smiled quickly turned to a frown. Cosima saying her fake name really brought down her mood in the span of two seconds. She really liked the tiny woman that sat across from her and she did not wanting to be dating her under false pretenses. She hated that she was lying to the person who she was falling for at an alarming rate. Delphine wanted to tell Cosima the truth, she did not want to lie to the woman anymore. However, Delphine also knew that it was always the little things that got undercover officers caught. It did not matter if Cosima had zero ties to the mafia she was currently investigating, Delphine had to be extremely careful with the current secret she was harboring. She felt a thumb caress the top of her hand and she looked up at the cute brunette that sat across from her.

"Are you okay Jacqueline?" Cosima asked. "You're not like harboring a secret girlfriend or something right?" There was a nervous chuckled. Different from Cosima's laid back chuckle that Delphine had gotten used to.

The French woman quickly lightened her expression up so that she could ease Cosima's mind. "Oh no no no," Delphine laughed and began to tease her date, "much much worse. I have got a whole family actually. A wife and two kids all back in France."

The blonde's comment got Cosima to lighten up again and the dread-haired woman through her head back in laughter. "You're quite the jokester Miss Laurent."

"That's Mrs. Laurent to you," Delphine teased once more and winked.

Cosima reached across the table and gave Delphine's arm a little shove before quickly pulling her closer and kissing her once more. She could get used to this. She could get used to this forever. If only she could find some way to tell the blonde across from her that she was the head of the biggest criminal organization on the West Coast.

-Shared House; November 25th, 5:42 PM—

"So I should tell her right?" Cosima asked Sarah and Alison who sat on the couch adjacent to the couch she sat on.

"And tell her what Cos?" Sarah asked and then answered, "oye Frenchie, I'm the head of a criminal organization and at any given moment I could go to bloody federal prison so yeah, hi."

"Well I mean yeah but like nicer?" Cosima sighed, "is there any way to break that news easy?"

Alison chimed in, "don't listen to this bozo sitting next to me Cosima. I say you do not have to tell her at all. Who knows how long she is going to stick around and it is just bad for business. Just keep her out of it."

"That's the thing though I like want to tell her the truth. This isn't because I feel like I have to, I genuinely want to tell her. I really like her guys and I want her to know the true me."

"Okay Cosima, honey, that is all well and good but it is not just you that you put at risk. It is all of us. If she reacts badly you are not the only one going down," Alison explained calmly, "I have Donnie and Donnie and I are thinking about adopting children, this is not a good time to be stirring up stuff that does not need to be stirred up."

"Fine fine fine," Cosima relented, "it's just hard lying to someone you really like, you know?"

Sarah snorted, "Alison doesn't know. She has been sleeping with that Beth chick for a long while now and she still hasn't fessed up to Donnie that she's bloody gay."

"I'm not gay," Alison whipped her head towards Sarah and glared at the other woman.

"There's nothing wrong with being gay Alison," Cosima sighed and gave her best friend a raised eyebrow.

Alison defended, "what I'm really not gay guys. I just like Beth a lot but she's the exception not the rule. That's like calling Sarah gay, she's bisexual and yet you both respect that. I like men but I'm just really into Beth."

"Okay," Sarah relented, "I'm sorry. You're right Soccer Mom, I'm sorry. But you should seriously consider telling Donnie. It isn't right to him ya know."

"Oh and when did the infamous Sarah Manning gain a conscious?" Alison asked sarcastically.

"What can I say? Rachel's made me a bloody better woman."

This caused Cosima to start laughing hysterically. She could not help it, the idea that Rachel Duncan made anybody a better woman was too much for Cosima. Alison soon joined her and even Sarah snorted and chuckled a bit.

"That's a crazy idea yeah?" Sarah laughed a bit, "but it's true guys. Be happy for me."

Cosima and Alison's laughter slowly tapered off but they both shook their heads as an okay. They did want to support Sarah and as much as Rachel could be bitchy, she was still theirs and they would support one of their own no matter what.

"Okay, we are happy for you I promise," Cosima smiled at Sarah reassuringly.

"Thank you dorks," Sarah teased.

Cosima reached over to grab the pillow to chuck it at Sarah's head for calling her a dork when at the same time Alison grabbed a pillow and smacked Sarah on the side of the face with her pillow.

"Oye what the hell!?" Sarah yelled as she grabbed a pillow and promptly smashed it across the back of Alison's head. Dodging the second pillow Cosima chucked her way, Sarah lunged across the living room and jumped on the American. She started whacking Cosima with a pillow repeatedly before she received a giant whack in the back of her head from Cosima's partner in crime, Alison.

Falling to the floor Sarah put her hands up in surrender while giggling, "I give, I give. You both win I promise."

Cosima and Alison dropped on either side of her and they all lay staring at the ceiling. A million thoughts were running through Cosima's mind. How lucky she was to have made this make shift family, how she would love to be pillow fighting with Jacqueline, and if they got caught what would happen to everyone.

"Do you guys ever think we are doing the wrong thing?" Cosima asked quietly.

There was a moment of silence before Alison answered softly, "all the time."

Sarah turned her body so she was facing Cosima, "Cos I really want you to know that you saved my life. Without you and Rachel and Alison, Felix and I would still be stuck prostituting ourselves just to get by. We do a lot a wrong, I'm aware. But you guys also do some good too. In a really twisted and fucked way you're giving people who never had a chance in life a chance to get out of bad situations and get back on their feet. So I don't think we are completely the bad guys here. Not everything is black and white, there are a bunch of shades in between too. It would do good for you to remember that."

Cosima gave a half smile at the British woman, she leaned over and gave Sarah a quick kiss on the cheek before wrapping her hand up in the other woman's. "Thanks you dork."

"You're welcome, you geek monkey," Sarah smiled and reciprocated Cosima's kiss by planting a peck on the tiny woman's forehead.

The three of them laid in silence again, enjoying the warmth that only came from that of another human being's body. They were a family through and through and nobody was ever going to take that from them and at the end of the day Cosima was not evil. She was not a controlling leader, she gave people the chance to work with them but if they wanted to walk then she allowed that too. Cosima was not one to use scare tactics unless her family was threatened because she would go to any length to protect the people that she loved and valued. And at the end of the day, to Cosima, that could never be wrong.

"Sooooooo," Alison's voice came from the other side of Sarah, "movie night?"


	4. We All Got Our Secrets

**As always, any and all mistakes are my own. I am sure there are plenty of them so I'm very sorry about that!**

 **Enjoy and please leave some thoughts or some constructive criticism! It would be much appreciated! Thank you!**

 **-MyaB**

Chapter 4: We All Got Our Secrets

 _ **Recap: Delphine and Cosima are going to go on their first date eventually. Delphine is making a name for her alias Jacqueline within the Ukrainian mafia and has a meeting with Nautilus' top lieutenants. Cosima wants to come clean to Delphine (aka Jacqueline) but Alison convinced her otherwise.**_

-Shared Home; December 2nd, 8:30 AM—

Cosima pushed her knuckle under her glasses so that she could rub at her tired eyes in hopes of becoming less groggy. Why did she have to be a responsible drug distributor? Oh, right, because this was the only "job" that was getting her through the expensive world of Grad school. Opening her eyes wide, she looked around the room. Everyone was posed in various positions of lying down, all of them dressed in pajamas (except for Alison) and clearly upset that they had to be up this early (also except for Alison who normally got up around 7-7:30 AM). It was their monthly meeting, which usually would not happen this early in the morning but, since Cosima had class in less than an hour and then had a date with Jacqueline later, this was really the only time she could manage to stage a meeting. Today's agenda was a rather important one too or else Cosima would have pushed off the meeting until the following day.

The Yakuza, a crime syndicate based in Japan, have begun to slowly encroach on the Ukrainian mafia's monopoly on marijuana in the West Coast. Because that is bad for business for Cosima, Cosima needed to gather some opinions from her top lieutenants about non-lethal strategies for getting rid of the Yakuza. The brunette did not want to start a gang war and by default put her people in danger, so taking a direct course of action was not an option. This was a problem the group had not faced before because nobody had ever been brave enough to try to move into Nautilus' territory. Thus, she needed the opinions of everyone around her so that she could make a calculated decision that was logical and safe. She knew gang feuds were never logical and safe but Cosima prided herself in being a gang leader that found other solutions to tough and typically violent problems. This was partly why she was so feared, she did everything in the shadows if she could help it but she also wasn't afraid to do what was necessary either.

The tiny woman yawned before beginning to talk, "I need proposals people. Like, solid, good proposals. Give me reasons and back it up with how it has worked in the past or how it would work in theory."

"What's the prompt?" Alison asked.

"The Yakuza have been moving into our drug business scene and taking away clientele. I need proposals to deal with this situation in a non-lethal way. I do not want a gang war on our hands. Our grunts matter just as much as you guys," Cosima responded.

There was a silence for a second as everyone mulled over Cosima's request. Rachel was first to raise her hand. Cosima nodded her head at Rachel to signify she had the okay to give her proposal.

Rachel started, "sabotage always works. You're right, the direct approach is too risky and would put our recruits and grunts lives at stake. We also don't want the Yakuza to be selling on our turf. The Yakuza are known as fierce bastards, they win the gang wars they are in 9 times out of 10. My proposal is to sabotage their supply lines, make it look like it is all just coincidences or accidents. Nobody had a hand in it, everything was completely accidental. They suspect no one and their customers start flocking back to us. We cut prices a bit and we would ideally look like the better option to anyone."

"Not a bad idea," Alison chimed in, "and we know this has worked in the past. The Ukraine branch of our Mafia pulled the same stunt on the Russian mafia about four years back. We made sure that our Mafia had zero ties with what was happening and that the "accidents" could not be traced back to us. No one was the wiser in the end."

Sarah butted in, "yeah but that's because the Russian mafia is a joke. The Yakuza aren't dumb, they will know something is up. They always know something is up. I know sabotage is the right direction but making it all look accidental would lead them straight back to us."

"I have to agree with Sarah," Felix said as he rubbed at his face. "the Yakuza are formidable and smart. They aren't as easy to fool as the Russian mafia. I think the best approach is to sabotage the supply lines while shifting the blame to the Columbian mafia." Everyone stared at the lanky man as if to say continue. "the Columbian's have a mid-sized foothold here on the West Coast but everyone also knows that they are power hungry and always looking for ways to expand. Also, they have always been second here on the West Coast to us but have gone out of their way to keep it like that. They make enough money as to where being second does not bother them and also keeping their status as #2 on the West Coast means they aren't starting a gang war they can't finish."

"Right!" Sarah exclaimed piggy backing onto Felix's thought process, "it would be almost stupidly believable that the Columbian mafia wouldn't want the bloody Yakuza to come and move into second place. They lose money and status and therefore have a direct reason to sabotage the Yakuza whereas it looks like right now we have almost zero motivation to sabotage them because our first place status is still basically secure."

Alison hummed in approval, "that is pretty brilliant actually. Plus the Triad pulled a similar move on the Yakuza back in the early 1990s when they pushed the blame onto the 14K gang which ultimately caused a gang war the spanned over a decade. So there is precedence."

"That sounds like an ideal plan really but before we all come to a consensus on this game plan, everyone on the panel has to speak." Cosima turned her head to look at the blonde Ukrainian woman. "Helena, do you want to add anything?"

Helena grunted before speaking, "gang wars are fun, effective, and efficient. You want something done fast, start a war. I can kill all the little Yakuza for you. Problem solved."

Alison and Rachel turned to give her a concerned look while Sarah patted her on the back and Felix rolled his eyes.

"Okaaaaayyyy," Cosima transitioned, "so it looks like we are all down for the sabotage but shift the blame plan?"

Everyone but Helena nodded back at the dread-haired girl.

"Okay let's make this official. All in favor?" Cosima asked.

"Aye," Rachel nodded.

Sarah spoke next, "aye."

"You get an aye from me," Felix agreed.

"Also aye," Alison smiled.

Helena just vigorously shook her head, "if my sestras all want to than I do too."

"Awesome!" Cosima exclaimed while jumping out of her seat. "Felix and Sarah since you two are the ones that came up with the final plan I want you guys to begin initiating it today and tomorrow. Find someone who can be believably Columbian or who would/could have believable ties with the Columbians. Okay?" Not giving them time to answer, "good. Now I need to go get ready for class. Have a nice day people." Finishing her thoughts, Cosima jetted up the stairs and to her room. She was excited to get ready and go to class so that classes could be over and she could finally see Jacqueline.

-Delphine's Apartment; December 2nd, 2:30 PM—

Today was the big day, the big date day, the big exciting date day. Delphine was ecstatic for it too. She had been waiting awhile for this date but because Cosima's schedule was so busy as of lately, the date had to wait until today. And today was finally here and nothing was going to get in her way of seeing that tiny, brilliant brunette with the infectious, fangy smile. The brilliant brunette with the brilliant brown eyes, eyes should could fall in love with. The date was at 3:30 and she was supposed to go pick the brunette up from school. She had this whole day planned in her head, a drive out of the city and into one of the adjacent neighboring towns. There they would have a picnic in a park that was not overly crowded and then to the local music festival that was happening later that evening. It was going to be perfect, especially because Delphine could envision Cosima really enjoying the music festival.

Delphine's phone began to ring, breaking her from her date thoughts. She ran over to the couch where her undercover phone rested and looked at the caller ID. It was Sarah. Delphine quickly slid to answer. "This is Paris."

"Oye Frenchie, you've been wanting your big break into our little crime syndicate? I've got one for you. Meet me at the warehouse in twenty minutes ya hear?" Sarah's voice rang from the speaker.

"In twenty minutes?" Delphine asked. "I have a prior engagement that I've scheduled. I cannot do that."

"Look," Sarah said pointedly, "this isn't a 'choose your hours line of work', alright? If I say meet me somewhere in twenty minutes, you cancel your plans and you bloody meet me there in twenty minutes. Understand?"

Delphine sighed, " _oui_ ".

"Good," Sarah responded, "I'll be at the warehouse in forty. If you don't show up in a timely manner, you can kiss your chances of becoming anything more than a regular grunt goodbye yeah?"

Once again, " _oui_ ".

"Good, I'll see you soon."

And with that Sarah hung up the phone. Delphine was torn, she did not want to be late for her date with Cosima but she also had a duty to her job to make a break in the case that Beth was having almost no luck in. This was her chance to move up the ladder within the Mafia and it could be the big breakthrough the department needed to finally figure out who Nautilus is.

The blonde quickly picked up her undercover phone again and shot out a text to Cosima, _Going to be late. Something came up at work that I need to take care of. I'm sorry. But don't worry I will make it some way._

She then shot a message to Art using her work phone, _Meeting with Sarah at the warehouse. She has a "job" for me. Will debrief later today or tomorrow._

After shooting out the message, the blonde slipped the phone into her jean pocket before pulling on her black peacoat that sat on the arm of the couch. She picked up her keys and headed out the door.

-Columbian Coffee Trader's Warehouse; December 2nd, 3:45 PM—

"Alright so remember what we went over in the warehouse," Sarah began coaching Delphine once more, "all you need to do is go inside the warehouse and tell them you have a proposal for their boss. The same proposal you made to us, you're gonna make to them. Helena is positioned across in the opposite building. She's got a sniper on the head boss so if anything goes wrong we have your back. We need you to at least shake the man's hand. My brother Felix is up there with Helena and he has a camera. You just need to stay in there long enough for Felix to take a couple pictures and then you're done for the day. Got it?"

"Got it," Delphine gulped. Her palms were sweaty, she was extremely nervous. The Columbian mafia wasn't as forgiving as the Ukrainian West Coast branch was. If she is made, no doubt she would be killed and that doesn't matter if Helena was watching her back or not.

"Good," Sarah nodded, "you do right by us today Frenchie and I guarantee you that you will have a top spot in no time."

"What's the point of this, why can't one of your guys do it?" Delphine asked.

"That's need to know only Paris," Sarah said. "Now it's time to get in there and do your thing."

Delphine gave her a look before opening the car door and exiting. The blonde stretched and ran her hands down her gray skirt and blazer to get the wrinkles out. Sarah had made her change back at the abandoned warehouse to give the blonde an air of professionalism and seriousness. The French woman took a deep breath and headed towards the coffee trader's warehouse. Heads turned as the crunch of gravel beneath her high heels signified a presence. Some of the men working around the yard gave appreciative glances while others unabashedly leered at the blonde. It made her feel uncomfortable but Delphine didn't let her face show it and she put on her best ice queen persona as an added measure.

Pulling the door to the warehouse open, she caught sight of the receptionist's desk up front. She quickly approached the desk and pulled a business card from the pocket of her blazer. Delphine smiled at the young man that ran the desk. She let the reigns of her French accent loose a little so that it was more pronounced.

"Bonjour," Delphine started, "I am here to speak with your boss, Hearnando Cortez, it's a business matter concerning something of great importance."

The man looked her up and down before responding, "Hernando is a very busy man, he does not have time to play around with little French women. I cannot let you see him but I can leave a message if you would like?"

Delphine did her best to glare at the young man before leaning in close and lowering her voice, "the business deal I would like to make with your boss would make him an even happier and richer man. I have a proposal that would allow him to expand his business in a way that the… mmm how do you say, Ukrainian mafia, hasn't yet. Surely a handsome young man such as yourself understands what I am getting at, non?" The man nodded slowly. Delphine licked her lips and patted him on the cheek. "Good, now call your boss." The man nodded again this time faster before picking up the phone and giving his boss a call.

"The boss will be down in just a minute. You can take a seat over there," the young man coughed before pointing at a couple of couches neatly placed around a modern glass table.

Delphine gave the man one more big smile before making her way over to the seating area. She fixed herself before she carefully sat down and crossed her legs. That was a little scary but using intimidation and feminine wiles always seemed to work on naïve young men so she was happy to see that did not change here.

The blonde turned her head as soon as she heard heavy footsteps approaching her. The kid wasn't kidding when he said his boss would be down in just a minute. Delphine stood up and once again brushed the wrinkles from her clothing. She turned to make eye contact with a dashing older man with vivid blue eyes and lovely tan skin. He smiled a pearly, white smile at her before extending a hand. "The name is Hernando Cortez but you seem to already know that Miss…" he trailed off.

"Miss Laurent," Delphine responded, "Jacqueline Laurent, CEO of Cormier and Co." Delphine smiled a fake smile and handed the man her business card. "You should know us as one of the largest shipping companies of France. One that has access to not only a number of large ports in France but all of Europe, as well as a number of smaller ports all throughout the West Coast."

This put an even larger smile on Hernando's face, "well Miss Laurent. How can we help you?"

"More like how can you help me, help you," Delphine gave a fake chuckle and bit her lip, "I've got a business proposal that I feel will be mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Shall we take this up to your office?"

Hernando extended his arm out to her as an offer for an escort, "we shall." Even if he was supposed to be a scary gangster, he was still quite the gentleman. Delphine would at least give him that much. She hesitantly looped her arm with his and let him lead the way.

-Outside the Warehouse; December 2nd, 6:24 PM—

Sarah shifted uncomfortably once again. This sucked, she was locked inside a hot SUV and had been lying down in the same position for a couple hours now. This mission was only supposed to take like 20-30 minutes tops but for some reason, Paris was still in the damn warehouse. She reached for the walkie-talkie that was beside her to radio over to Felix.

"Hey Fee," Sarah whispered into the radio, "do you copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear Sarah dear," Felix laughed at his own joke, "what's up?"

"What's happening in there?" Sarah asked her brother.

"They're still laughing and talking," Felix responded, "you can tell Frenchie is getting real tired of the persona but for some reason she hasn't left yet. Hernando seems to be enjoying himself though and he looks none the wiser either which is nice. I've gotten plenty of great shots."

"Does she look in distress?"

"She looks perfectly fine. She also looks like she has been trying to wrap it up forever though. I think Hernando has grown fond of her though and is blatantly flirting. I believe she probably doesn't want to upset the man by leaving too suddenly."

"Does she look like she is wrapping it up any time soon?" Sarah whined, "I gotta piss so bad at this point."

Felix laughed once more, "Well, she just got out of her seat. He is approaching her smiling… Oh! He just caressed her face… he is leaning in. Frenchie is panicking…he kissed her!" Felix exclaimed loud.

"What!?" Sarah exclaimed la=louder than she was comfortable with. "What do you mean he kissed her?"

"Yup," Felix was giggling," they're kissing. He looks way more into it than her…She slipped him a piece of paper. Seems to be her number. Now she gave him a kiss on the cheek…he is smiling and now he is caressing her face again…Ope! There she goes, she kissed his palm and now she is leaving. Headed your way sweet stuff, looking ready to kill to Sarah."

Sarah groaned, "I think I'm in for some shit huh?"

"More like murder but yeah," Felix laughed, "good luck! Helena and I are heading out now. Bye sis!"

Sarah groaned again before slouching down further into her spot. It was no more than three minutes later when she heard the rapid crunch, crunch, crunch as Delphine approached her car. Finally she heard the keys jangle and then the door being pulled open before abruptly being slammed shut.

"I expect to meet Nautilus after this," Delphine started and an unusually cool and calm voice. She started the ignition and quickly pulled out of the warehouse. Once she was down the road away's and out of the line of sight of any Columbians she quickly lost it, slamming the breaks. "I better fucking meet Nautilus for the bullshit I went through tonight do you hear!?"

Sarah sighed, "just calm down Pari-"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do," Delphine barked at her immediately shutting her up. "Don't open your damn mouth right now. He kissed me! The damn Columbian moves with the speed of a Cheetah! And because YOU told me at the warehouse to play like I was into him, I got kissed! KISSED! And guess what?! I had to pretend I liked it! Now he expects a date! Tell me Sarah Manning, what am I to do about this?!"

"Tell him you're going back to France?" Sarah suggested softly.

"Like that'll stop the man!" Delphine yelled once again. "You better fix this and fast. I did my part, now you do yours."

Sarah gave the blonde a rapid nod. Frenchie was absolutely scary when she was pissed off.

"Oh!" Delphine yelled once more, "I expect a meeting with Nautilus within the next two weeks. Do you understand?" She asked Sarah with cold, calculating eyes. Like if Sarah said no, Delphine would not hesitate to smash the car into a tree and kill the both of them.

Sarah nodded once more before feeling safe enough to climb into the front seat. "You've earned it Frenchie."

Delphine let out a long deep, angry breath before calming looking back at Sarah. "Thank you." And with that, Delphine put the car back into gear and continued driving without a word. She had a date to get to now.

-Library; December 2nd, 7:00 PM—

Delphine rushed over to Cosima's table once the spotted the smaller woman on the first floor of her school's library. Although she was sure Cosima hear the clicking of her heels against the tiled floor (she didn't get the chance to change), the dread-haired woman did not look up at her. Cosima was probably mad and rightfully so Delphine though. She would be made if Cosima was three hours late to their date too. Once she reached the table she pulled a chair out and sat down across from Cosima.

"I'm very sorry," Delphine said softly reaching her hand across the table to touch Cosima's hand.

Cosima looked up at the blonde sitting across from her and felt the French woman's thumb rubbing back and forth across the top of her hand and could not bring herself to stay mad. "It would've at least been a little nice if you had given me an estimate, you know?"

"I know, it was just that it came up so last minute that I had to rush over to get to the job and I wasn't sure how long it was going to take and I wanted to call you but I was so busy that I didn't get the chance and I feel really really really bad Cosima…Super ba-"

"Hey I understand," Cosima interrupted. "It happens. What did you have to do anyways?"

This gave Delphine pause. What does she tell Cosima? Does she tell her anything? Does she stay vauge? Should she stay vague? The blonde began to internally panic at the question. How was she supposed to respond?

"Oh um…" Delphine trailed off, "I, um, got a call from my father. He wanted me to attend a meeting on, uh, his behalf."

Cosima stared at the woman across from her for a second before letting it slide. She knew if she was pressed about the things she did outside of their time together, she wouldn't be so forthright either. Maybe Delphine had a secret and that was fine because she had a bigger one. So Cosima would let it slide, for the time being at least.

She gave the blonde a teasing lop-sided grin, "hey. It's alright Jacqueline, we all have are secrets."

Delphine gave the brunette a grin back, but it didn't reach her eyes. If only Cosima knew hers, life would be a lot easier. She was going to have to talk to Art about letting Cosima know the truth. She didn't want to hide her undercover assignment from Cosima any longer. Delphine liked the other woman way too much to continue lying to her about who she fundamentally is. About what she does and why she does it. And she wanted to hear Cosima say her name, her actual name, not Jacqueline. She wanted to hear Delphine come out of that pretty little mouth, the one that she enjoyed kissing oh so much.

"So…date?" Delphine asked hesitantly.

"Date," Cosima nodded and smiled.

Delphine got up from her seat and made her way around the table. She planted a kiss on the top of Cosima's head before offering a hand. "Let's go do this right."


	5. Beautiful Thing

**Author's Note:**

 **So I had essentially lost all motivation to write this story awhile back but finally a private message from one of the fantastic readers spurred me to continue the story and want to finish it. I am sure at this point the interest for the story is gone but nonetheless it is a story I want to finish.**

 **I am sorry for such a long wait, as always any mistakes are my own and I apologize for the mistakes in advance! But here you go!**

 **-MyaB**

Chapter 5: Beautiful Thing

 **Recap: Delphine met with the Columbine Mafia's West Coast distributor for Sarah so that that Cosima can sabotage the Yakuza and frame the Columbians for it. This made Delphine late to her date with Cosima and secured a meeting with Nautilus for Delphine.**

-Delphine's Car; December 2nd, 7:30 pm—

"You know, it won't kill you to tell me where we are headed," Cosima smiled softly at the blonde driving. She played with the other woman's hand that she held in her own, running her fingers along the French woman's palm and intertwining their fingers ever so often. "We have been in this car for the last twenty-five minutes, which I am not complaining about because I get to watch your beautiful face concentrate on the road, but I am still an insatiably curious human being."

Delphine quickly glanced at the silly woman that sat beside her, throwing her a soft smile. "You are very impatient Cosima. I am taking you somewhere nice, I promise. Since my original plan of picnic and local music festival were ruined by unexpected plans, I think a simple substitute but beautiful substitute will suffice. Trust me, _oui_?"

"Fine," Cosima groaned but grinned at the blonde to let her know it was alright.

"We are almost there, you child," Delphine chuckled and gripped the smaller woman's hand as a reassurance. "It is worth the wait, I promise."

Cosima leaned down to kiss the top of Delphine's hand, "I trust you to make this date an awesome one. Besides, I suppose it is super cute to watch you concentrate really hard on the road. You have a very cute concentrating face. Is that weird to say?"

" _Non_ ," Delphine whispered out with a blush on her cheeks and then teased the dread-haired woman, "but I do think that you're a kiss-ass now."

Cosima huffed and pulled her hand away from the blonde's so that she could cross her arm over her chest in a playful pout. She frowned at the woman driving the car but, noticed that the blonde was pulling away from the main road which caught Cosima's attention. The crunch of dirt and gravel beneath the tires signaled that they were most definitely on a dirt path.

As the blonde continued driving further down the side road, Cosima noticed that they were climbing upwards and the trees became gradually thicker as well. Beautiful, majestic, and excessively tall trees that stood brilliantly against the moonlight. She rolled the window down and hesitantly put her hand outside to touch the wind. The air was fresh and it whipped at her hand causing a sting from the coldness. It was painful in a rather delightful way and so Cosima stuck ever more of her arm out of the side of the vehicle, letting the speed of the wind control the direction her arm waved about in.

Delphine's voice startled Cosima as the blonde spoke up, "you know, one of the most refreshing things to do is sit on the window sill and stick half of your body outside the car. Feeling the wind whip through your hair and the wind on your face is surprisingly calming. I would recommend it."

"Stop for a second then," Cosima flashed her date a fangy smile, "I want to settle in and try this properly."

Obliging, Delphine slowly brought her car to a stop and let Cosima situate herself into a safe position on the car's window sill, she wrapped her hand securely on the roof's handle. Once she was satisfied that Cosima would not fall out of the car completely if they hit a bump, Delphine slowly began to accelerate again.

As the car sped up, Cosima's dreaded-hair began to flop behind her carelessly and was hostage to the whims of the wind. The cool air began to sting her face and reddened it as well, but again, it was in a pleasant way. The air began invading her lungs much quicker but Delphine was not going so fast that it took her breath away all together. The brunette closed her eyes and let all her worries wash away. It was freeing and her companion was correct in the observation that it was also rather refreshing. It was like she was being scrubbed clean by the wind and air, it was coating her and surrounding her but also flying away from her as well. The feeling was incredible and indescribable. And then the car stopped.

Cosima opened her eyes to a blinding amount of light. The trees were gone from sight and they sat atop a hill that overlooked the bay. To see the light of the city juxtaposed with the darkness of the night sky was enough to leave Cosima speechless.

"Do you like what you see?" Delphine asked. "I thought that this would be a wonderful place to get to know one another and take in a beautiful sight all in one. Plus, I brought enough snacks and hot coco to last us all night."

Cosima finally opened her mouth to speak, "it is incredibly gorgeous." She chuckled, "though of course, not as gorgeous as the beautiful blonde I get to take in the sight with." She slowly slipped back into the car and seated herself properly before looking over at Delphine. "Shall we go lay out a blanket, grab some snacks, and just do nothing?"

The detective smiled at her date, "that sounds ideal yes."

-Atop a Hill Overlooking the City; December 2nd, 11:30pm—

"—And I thought Helena's wrestling display might have broken Felix's back, but Felix pops up and yells 'That was Awesome!'" Cosima snorted out curling into the equally amused blonde's side.

Delphine still laughing just as hard as the brunette, managed to choke out, "Helena sounds like a handful. I'll have to meet her at some point."

Cosima's laughs trickled off and she hummed with approval, "I would love for you to meet my family. They are a wild bunch but I would not have it any other way."

" _Oui_ , by the sounds of it, your brother and sister would make for a very interesting evening," Delphine smiled down at the woman curled into her side. "And if they are anything like you, I know that they will be insufferably cute and intelligent **and** make horrible puns."

"Hey!" Cosima protested, "the only one that makes bad puns here is you. I, for the record, make fantastic puns! The best puns! Puns that are so good they will knock any girls socks off! But, I save them just for you," Cosima winked at the French woman.

"Oh," Delphine rolled her eyes lovingly, "I am honored my lady."

The brunette lightly tackled the blonde down onto the blanket and straddled her, at the same time she grabbed both of the taller woman's arms and locked them into place. "Admit that my puns are the best puns, the only puns you want to hear ever."

Delphine devilishly grinned at the woman who was now on top of her, "and if I don't?"

"I will tickle you into oblivion," Cosima glared.

"Good luck," Delphine bluffed and looked the woman above her dead in the eye, "but I. am. Not. Ticklish."

Light brown eyes locked with dark brown eyes and the two girls entered a stare off. Cosima was trying to gauge if Delphine was blushing or not and Delphine was trying to gauge what move Cosima was going to make. Finally, the smaller woman's hands shot to the blonde's sides and the scientist began to tickle the detective.

Delphine curled into a ball, rolling side to side, and laughing as Cosima's tickles made her body react on its own. She tried to protect her sides and swat at the brunette's arms all at once and it was going poorly for the French girl.

"Say it!" Cosima giggled, "admit you like my puns you fiend!"

Delphine yelled out in between laughing, "fine! Your puns are the best puns ever!"

Cosima relented slightly with a victorious grin but she was not completely satisfied, "and?"

"They're the only puns I ever want to hear," Delphine rushed out before the tiny woman on her could begin to tickle her again, "I swear it."

Finally satisfied, the dread-haired girl grinned sloppily at the blonde beneath her and slowly moved her lips down to reach her dates' as a reward for fessing up to what everyone knew was the truth. She softly planted a kiss on Delphine as her body melted slowly into the taller woman's.

Then Delphine gripped her companion's waist and pushed her lips harder against her dates', more urgently, like it was the only thing she had ever wanted. Cosima pushed her body harder against Delphine's and intertwined the fingers of her left hand into the blonde's hair, she rested the other around the back of the blonde's neck deepening the kiss. The two clashed for control of the kiss until finally Cosima relented and let Delphine take control. And then they just memorized the feel of each other's lips.

The blonde planted pulled away minutes later and then planted one more kiss on Cosima's lips before softly kissing the tip of her nose as well. "Would you like to get out of here _belle chose_?"

"Only if you're taking me home," Cosima replied breathlessly.

Delphine smiled brightly kissing the American once more, "that can be arranged."

"Than what are you waiting for," Cosima responded jumping up, "take me home please."


End file.
